July unemployment rate falls to 5.2%; Himachal sees highest youth joblessness of 30% in April-June

The monthly jobs data is based on the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach. Under this approach, the activity status of a person is measured for the seven days preceding the date of survey.

The unemployment rate fell in July even as the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) – the fraction of the population seeking work – rose by 70 bps to 54.9 per cent, driven entirely by more women seeking work. In July, while the male LFPR was unchanged at 77.1 per cent, the female LFPR rose 130 bps to 33.3 per cent. The LFPR had fallen in June, with MoSPI saying last month that it was “largely influenced by seasonal agricultural patterns, intense summer heat limiting outdoor physical work, and a shift of some unpaid helpers, particularly from higher-income rural households, towards domestic chores”.

Among the youth, or those aged 15-29 years, the all-India unemployment rate declined by 40 bps in July to 14.9 per cent. Curiously, while rural youth unemployment fell significantly by 80 bps in July to 13 per cent, it edged up in urban areas by 20 bps to 19 per cent, the MoSPI data showed.

On the whole, the rural unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above declined by 50 bps to 4.4 per cent, while the urban unemployment rate edged up by 10 bps to 7.2 per cent in July.

The July PLFS report is the fourth-ever monthly labour market data from the statistics ministry, which has previously warned that changes in the unemployment rate did not necessarily reflect “secular trends” as these were to be expected in monthly data on account of increased frequency of the survey and seasonal, academic, and labour market factors. As part of the revamped survey design of the PLFS adopted in January, a rotational panel sampling design is being used. Under this, each selected household is visited four times in four consecutive months. This ensures that three-fourths of first-stage sampling units, or FSUs, are matched between two consecutive months.

State-level estimates

Along with the monthly labour market numbers, the statistics ministry also released its first-ever quarterly report under the revamped PLFS methodology on Monday. Previous quarterly reports were only for urban areas.

As per the latest report, the unemployment rate in April-June was 5.4 per cent for both males and females aged 15 years and above, with the rural unemployment rate at 4.8 per cent and the urban unemployment rate at 6.8 per cent.

Unlike the monthly data, the quarterly data provided state-level estimates too, which showed that the unemployment rate was the highest in Rajasthan, at 8.8 per cent, and the lowest in Gujarat, at 2.2 per cent, for persons aged 15 years and above.

Youth unemployment in April-June, meanwhile, was the highest in Himachal Pradesh, at 29.6 per cent – more than double the all-India rate of 14.6 per cent. Gujarat, again, had the lowest youth unemployment rate of 5.6 per cent even though it had the highest youth LFPR of 53.5 per cent.

In terms of people aged 15 years and above looking for work, Himachal’s LFPR of 70.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2025-26 was the highest in the country. At the other end of the spectrum was Delhi, which had an LFPR of just 43.5 per cent. The all-India LFPR in April-June was 55 per cent – 77.3 per cent for males and 33.4 per cent for females.

Himachal Pradesh has been hit hard by heavy rains in recent months, with cloud bursts and flash floods taking a toll on lives and livelihoods. Earlier this month, the home ministry informed the Lok Sabha that between April 1 and July 30, 195 persons and 23,992 animals had died in Himachal Pradesh.

“By industry of work, the agriculture sector engaged the majority of rural workers (44.6 per cent of men and 70.9 per cent of women), while the tertiary sector was the largest source of employment in urban areas (60.6 per cent of men and 64.9 per cent of women). On average, 56.4 crore persons (aged 15 years and above) were employed in the country during this quarter, of which 39.7 crore were men and 16.7 crore were women,” MoSPI said in a statement.